<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

[log in to unmask]

you should mention on the list that you also have DH, as you told me.
That should be a clincher for most. You sure got the interest and
stimulated a lot of discussion. Good job.

[I only had DH twice - the worst time was just before I went
gluten-free and had decided that wheat germ and wheat germ oil might
give me a return to good health.  Wow!  Poison ivy is nothing
compared with DH.  Second time was from an accidental intake of
gluten a few years later.  It took months for the red bumps to go
away even after the itching stopped.GK]

*****

[Again, I'm leaving off the return address because of the subject
matter.  Contact me if you want to be in touch with this person.]

I also had mild schizophrenic symptoms before going GF.  My brother is
full blown schizophrenic and lives in a group home.  The staff there
is great, but do not comprehend the gluten/brain connection.  My brother
displays many of the celiac symptoms, but a blood test came back negative
for CD.  My father also has irrational anger and paranoia to the point
where he will not speak with anyone and no one wants to speak with him.

Is there any data being collected for a study of the gluten/brain connection?
If not, perhaps we could approach a research psychology student or state
mental health department with some of our own status.

I have included the message below with the hope that we could share thoughts
on this subject:

Good thought provoking discussion you've started there!  Thanks.

My 23 year old son had a schizophrenic episode in the past that lasted
for about six weeks.  He heard voices & had hallucinations.  It was the
scariest six weeks of his & my life. I'm an RN & didn't want to plughim
into the mental health circuit with all their drugs etc., before we ruled
out EVERY thing physical we could.  He snapped out of it & rejoined the
world of sane people when he went on a strict low carb diet similar to
the ATkins diet at my suggestion.  That was about a year ago.  He's quite
thin & needs more variety in his diet, but he's afraid to eat now because
he never knows what going to happen & how he's going to behave when he
does.  Pretty tough for a young man who's desparately trying to get his
education & develop some independence from his parents.  He still has
trouble from time to time but nothing like he was.  He notices a very
strong correlation in his ability to think normally & his diet.  Casien
(milk protein) is especially bad for him.  I have ordered the whole
sensitivity panel for him.  I just hope we can find solutions.

I have an uncle who was a sickly child & who has had nagging but mild
health problems all his life.  He's now about 75 & nutier than a fruit
cake.  I'm pretty sure he'd be a much more normal man if he had been
GF/CF all these years.  It's sad when you see what could have been witha
little knowledge & proper medical intervention.

The next message is from an MD and is especially interesting to me.
[log in to unmask]

Your trigger theory is interesting, but there is one flaw: the trigger's
already been pulled.  The problem is that what a celiac has triggered is
cellular memory.  It's essentially the same system that gives immunity to
diseases such as chicken pox. For whatever reason, a celiac's immune system
has recognized gliadin as an enemy.  Anytime it is exposed to gluten, it
remembers it and produces antibodies to fight off the perceived enemy.
Apparently because of a resemblance between certain molecules in gliadin and
some on intestinal cells, the antibodies attack the intestine.  Just as
someone exposed to chicken pox is immune for life, so are those sensitized
to gluten sensitive for life.

Now, one might postulate that acupuncture creates cellular amnesia, so to
speak, but how would it produce such an effect specifically for just ONE of
the many "enemies" the body recognizes?  One would expect decreased immunity
in general in that case.

A long term would need to be done, with scientific documentation of celiac
disease (bloodwork, biopsies) before acupuncture treatment and then follow
ups with bloodwork and biopsies say yearly for at least ten or twenty years.
One would also like to compare the incidence of things like lymphoma and
autoimmune disease between these people and those treated conventionally
with a strict GF diet.

[log in to unmask]

Celiac disease is definitely NOT connected to stress or emotion at all--it is
an autoimmune disease with definite visible pathology.  CD has NEVER been
included in the "cluster" or illnesses which doctors associate with
stress/emotion.

Emotional triggers ARE involved in IBS which is definitely connected to
stress--there is no specific pathology that can be found in the GI tract
(which is not to say that there isn't any).

Children do not get IBS.  They do get CD (as we all know) and they get it
bad, even happy children without a stress or care in the world.

[log in to unmask]

I think it's wonderful to know that the acupuncture has helped you so!  It
must be an amazing tool;  I know I would be real leary of trying gluten
again, and how amazing that seems to be ok with you.  Our bodies are just so
hard to understand.  Thank you for sharing your story - I get so tired of
all the negative responses received after posting things.